Complex land cover change, water and sediment yield in a degraded Andean environment

Rapid land use/-cover change has increasingly transformed the hydrological functioning of tropical Andean ecosystems. The hydrological response to forest cover change strongly depends on the initial state of the ecosystem. Relatively little is known about human-disturbed ecosystems where forest plan...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Molina, Armando, Vanacker, Veerle, Balthazar, Vincent, Mora, Diego, Govers, Gerard
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2012
País:Ecuador
Institución:Universidad de Cuenca
Repositorio:Repositorio Universidad de Cuenca
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec:123456789/22161
Acceso en línea:http://dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec/handle/123456789/22161
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Andes
Land Degradation
Deforestation
Exotic Forest Plantations
Hydrology
Water Yield
id EC_7e9e5b62ff7be4ded9e3fee692b4e86b
oai_identifier_str oai:dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec:123456789/22161
network_acronym_str EC
network_name_str Ecuador
repository_id_str
spelling Complex land cover change, water and sediment yield in a degraded Andean environmentJournal of HydrologyMolina, ArmandoVanacker, VeerleBalthazar, VincentMora, DiegoGovers, GerardAndesLand DegradationDeforestationExotic Forest PlantationsHydrologyWater YieldRapid land use/-cover change has increasingly transformed the hydrological functioning of tropical Andean ecosystems. The hydrological response to forest cover change strongly depends on the initial state of the ecosystem. Relatively little is known about human-disturbed ecosystems where forest plantations have been established on highly degraded land. In this paper, we analyze the impact of forest change on water and sediment fluxes for a highly degraded Andean catchment. Different pathways of land cover change (1963–2007) are observed in the Jadan catchment, with deforestation taking place in remote uplands and recovery and reforestation in the middle and lower parts where agricultural and bare lands are prevalent. Time series analyses of streamflow and rainfall data (1979/1982–2005/2007) show significant shifts in the distribution of rainfall and flow data. Changes in discharge are not resulting from changes in precipitation, as the direction of change is opposite. The removal of native forest for rangeland or croplands (by −20 km2) is likely to have contributed to the increase in total annual water yield, through an increase in annual baseflow by 25 mm. The observed changes in peakflow are important as the 1st percentile highest flow rates were 54% lower, while the 1st percentile rainfall amounts increased by 52%. The observed decrease in peakflow cannot be explained by clearcut of native forest, but is likely to be related to reforestation of degraded lands as well as spontaneous recovery of vegetation on remaining grazing lands. Over the same time period, a major decrease in specific sediment yields and suspended sediment loads was observed. Although deforestation in the upper parts led to increased landslide activity, this change is not reflected in an increased sediment yield. Small upland rivers are often nearly completely blocked by landslide material, thereby reducing their potential to transport sediment. In contrast, the reduction in estimated erosion is likely to be caused by the reduction of the degraded areas in areal extent as well as to the (partial) recovery of the vegetation in these areas.volumen 472-4732015-06-12T18:53:02Z2015-06-12T18:53:02Z2012-11-23info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfapplication/pdfhttp://dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec/handle/123456789/22161doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.09.012enghttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ec/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositorio Universidad de Cuencainstname:Universidad de Cuencainstacron:UCUENCA2020-08-01T01:11:25Zoai:dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec:123456789/22161Institucionalhttp://dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec/Universidad públicahttps://www.ucuenca.edu.ec/http://dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec/oai.Ecuador...opendoar:41862020-08-01T01:11:25Repositorio Universidad de Cuenca - Universidad de Cuencafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Complex land cover change, water and sediment yield in a degraded Andean environment
Journal of Hydrology
title Complex land cover change, water and sediment yield in a degraded Andean environment
spellingShingle Complex land cover change, water and sediment yield in a degraded Andean environment
Molina, Armando
Andes
Land Degradation
Deforestation
Exotic Forest Plantations
Hydrology
Water Yield
title_short Complex land cover change, water and sediment yield in a degraded Andean environment
title_full Complex land cover change, water and sediment yield in a degraded Andean environment
title_fullStr Complex land cover change, water and sediment yield in a degraded Andean environment
title_full_unstemmed Complex land cover change, water and sediment yield in a degraded Andean environment
title_sort Complex land cover change, water and sediment yield in a degraded Andean environment
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Molina, Armando
Vanacker, Veerle
Balthazar, Vincent
Mora, Diego
Govers, Gerard
author Molina, Armando
author_facet Molina, Armando
Vanacker, Veerle
Balthazar, Vincent
Mora, Diego
Govers, Gerard
author_role author
author2 Vanacker, Veerle
Balthazar, Vincent
Mora, Diego
Govers, Gerard
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Andes
Land Degradation
Deforestation
Exotic Forest Plantations
Hydrology
Water Yield
topic Andes
Land Degradation
Deforestation
Exotic Forest Plantations
Hydrology
Water Yield
description Rapid land use/-cover change has increasingly transformed the hydrological functioning of tropical Andean ecosystems. The hydrological response to forest cover change strongly depends on the initial state of the ecosystem. Relatively little is known about human-disturbed ecosystems where forest plantations have been established on highly degraded land. In this paper, we analyze the impact of forest change on water and sediment fluxes for a highly degraded Andean catchment. Different pathways of land cover change (1963–2007) are observed in the Jadan catchment, with deforestation taking place in remote uplands and recovery and reforestation in the middle and lower parts where agricultural and bare lands are prevalent. Time series analyses of streamflow and rainfall data (1979/1982–2005/2007) show significant shifts in the distribution of rainfall and flow data. Changes in discharge are not resulting from changes in precipitation, as the direction of change is opposite. The removal of native forest for rangeland or croplands (by −20 km2) is likely to have contributed to the increase in total annual water yield, through an increase in annual baseflow by 25 mm. The observed changes in peakflow are important as the 1st percentile highest flow rates were 54% lower, while the 1st percentile rainfall amounts increased by 52%. The observed decrease in peakflow cannot be explained by clearcut of native forest, but is likely to be related to reforestation of degraded lands as well as spontaneous recovery of vegetation on remaining grazing lands. Over the same time period, a major decrease in specific sediment yields and suspended sediment loads was observed. Although deforestation in the upper parts led to increased landslide activity, this change is not reflected in an increased sediment yield. Small upland rivers are often nearly completely blocked by landslide material, thereby reducing their potential to transport sediment. In contrast, the reduction in estimated erosion is likely to be caused by the reduction of the degraded areas in areal extent as well as to the (partial) recovery of the vegetation in these areas.
publishDate 2012
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2012-11-23
2015-06-12T18:53:02Z
2015-06-12T18:53:02Z
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
status_str publishedVersion
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv http://dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec/handle/123456789/22161
doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.09.012
url http://dspace.ucuenca.edu.ec/handle/123456789/22161
identifier_str_mv doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2012.09.012
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ec/
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ec/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Repositorio Universidad de Cuenca
instname:Universidad de Cuenca
instacron:UCUENCA
instname_str Universidad de Cuenca
instacron_str UCUENCA
institution UCUENCA
reponame_str Repositorio Universidad de Cuenca
collection Repositorio Universidad de Cuenca
repository.name.fl_str_mv Repositorio Universidad de Cuenca - Universidad de Cuenca
repository.mail.fl_str_mv .
_version_ 1868999729287790592
score 15,301603

Similares en LA Referencia